English Farm

Berkshire, UK

LSS worked with the client to carefully preserve, adaptively reuse and update a cluster of 19th century Victorian stable buildings and courtyards. LSS created a new master plan, re-imagining the utilitarian elements with new recreational functions. The buildings’ transformations are signaled externally with subtle modern oak interventions, while inside each building was reconceived and rebuilt as weekend play spaces. A language of restrained, minimal interior detailing and materials provides a dramatic contrast to the expressive, idiosyncratic period exteriors, highlighting the new space’s unexpected functions.

The project features a water-filled former stable that serves as an indoor swimming pool.  The ‘flooded’ building is crossed via an oak bridge that leads to an intimate sculpture garden framed by stucco landscape walls.

LSS’s design approach exploited local masonry construction techniques and the craftsmanship of local artisans, along with state-of-the-art custom fabrication for the new structural stainless steel trusses and steel supports that animate the interiors.

The rich fabric of the original utilitarian compound of courtyards was painstakingly restored and improved, and the buildings’ interiors were completely transformed into unexpected and serene modern spaces.

The English Farm received a RIBA Honor Award, an AIA New York State Architecture Award, and an AIA New York Interiors Award.